Chapter 935: The Clue Beltira Discovered

The Solin main nexus was undoubtedly the most unique among all the empire’s magical network hubs—not just because its crystal array was built atop the treetops, but because Beltira, this “living nexus vessel,” had boldly transformed the entire hub by harnessing the unique biological traits of the Solin giant tree. She had seamlessly fused cold steel and crystal into the tree’s structure, and everywhere in the canopy, her “design” was evident.

Guided by Beltira, Margarita arrived at the area housing the crystal array. The metal supports anchoring the crystals were deeply embedded into the giant tree, with countless wooden structures and vine-like “conduits” extending from the dense branches, merging into the crystal array’s base. Suddenly, with a rustling sound, a section of the “ground” near the base opened up. The once tightly packed leaves trembled and parted to reveal a sloping staircase descending into the depths.

Despite being wrapped in layers of leaves and branches, the passage was not dark. Glowing flowers and slender vines hung from the “walls” on either side, illuminating this “small world” nestled within the canopy like a natural lantern.

“This is my ‘laboratory,’” Beltira explained as she stepped forward, “I built it inside myself for convenience.” She gestured for them to follow. “Watch your step—the stairs are a bit steep. I’m currently figuring out how to regrow this section.”

“Truly… ingenious,” Margarita said, following closely with several technicians and accompanying soldiers into Beltira’s private “secret space.” She marveled at the glowing plants on the leafy walls and the cleverly grown stairs and corridors, unable to hide her admiration. “I never imagined you had this kind of creativity, Lady Beltira.”

“…Honestly, I almost forgot I had it myself,” Beltira’s steps faltered slightly before she continued. “Curiosity, creativity, learning new things, observing the world… I had abandoned many of these, but lately, I’ve been trying to reclaim them.”

As they passed the steep stairs, they entered a spacious chamber.

It was an ellipsoid “world within the tree.” Margarita swore that even in her wildest dreams, she had never seen anything so strange yet wondrous—

Sturdy wooden shells and support pillars upheld the space. Countless green leaves and vine walls formed the chamber’s walls, floor, and ceiling. An uncountable number of glowing plants—flowers and hanging mycelia alike—provided illumination, making it look like a brightly lit botanical cave. Inside this “cave,” Margarita saw things no human could easily comprehend: glowing vines scattered across the floor with shifting brightness, pouch-like sacs hanging from the leafy walls resembling some kind of incubation pods, layered wooden platforms stacked one atop another—and most striking of all, at the very center of the space, a peculiar structure.

A massive sac hung from the ceiling, with dozens of thick and thin vines and tubular tissues extending from its top. The sac resembled a reddish-brown pouch filled with a faintly glowing liquid. Over time, some of its thinner “membranes” pulsed gently, revealing vein-like structures that shimmered in and out of light.

It was unsettling, yet mysteriously captivating. Its design clearly bore some relation to the biotechnologies of the Cult of the End of All Things, but without the usual bloodthirsty madness.

“I haven’t let anyone else come here,” Beltira told Margarita. “As you can see, this place was built according to my ‘survival mode.’ Only I can use what’s here. By the way, I hope this doesn’t count as a violation? I haven’t taken any public resources—just doing some research here. After all, I’m a druid.”

“Uh… I don’t think it’s a violation,” Margarita said after a moment’s thought. “Strictly speaking… this is more like a ‘physiological modification’ of your own body. I doubt imperial law can dictate how you grow.”

Feeling the topic was getting too complicated, the imperial general quickly waved her hand. “Let’s not dwell on that. Lady Beltira, you mentioned you found clues in the signal—does it have anything to do with this ‘secret base’?”

“Oh, definitely. Because the clue was discovered right here,” Beltira nodded, leading them to a large flower bud inside the ellipsoid chamber. As Margarita and the others approached, the bud—about as tall as a person—suddenly unfurled. The curled green leaves spread open, revealing a pure white inner surface.

“What is this?” Margarita frowned, curious.

“Just a little trick to display images—controlling plants directly is easier for me than manipulating magic crystals,” Beltira said casually. “That’s a minor detail. What I want to show you is… this.”

She began communicating with the plant structure. Margarita watched intently, then gasped as dark green marks suddenly appeared on the white inner leaves.

“Since receiving those strange signals, I’ve been trying to decipher their meaning. Scholars tried many methods—codes, ciphers, converting them into sounds, alphabets… I tried all of them, but failed. Those brief tremors seemed random—no cipher key, no numeric pattern, just noise when converted to sound. So finally, I had a thought: maybe these tremors aren’t a code at all. Maybe they’re something… simpler?”

As Beltira explained her attempts, she traced more details onto the leaf’s surface.

“I used a very simple method no one else tried: I drew the tremors. See, when a strong tremor occurs, I mark a dot—like a tiny ink spot. Weaker tremors or silence are left blank. If we treat the duration of a tremor as a ‘cell,’ then the length of weak tremors or white noise equals the number of blank cells.

“Here’s the key part—I spent a long time figuring out how to handle this. In the signals, every so often there’s a very short, sharp waveform. At first, I thought it was another ‘line,’ but then I realized it means… ‘new line.’

“Similarly, we received several other short, sharp waveforms, each with its own meaning, used to position subsequent dots relative to the previous line…”

The magical imprints on the leaf multiplied. Following Beltira’s logic, the mysterious signal “monitored” by the Solin nexus was rapidly transforming into a pattern of dots and blanks. Margarita was nearly certain now—Beltira’s approach was correct!

Because the dots weren’t random; their arrangement was forming neat, orderly shapes!

“What is that?” a technician behind Margarita finally blurted out. The middle-aged man in a mage technician’s robe stared wide-eyed at the “dot pattern” on the leaf, astonished. “This is…”

“A square,” Beltira said. “The dots connect to form a perfect square—very… precise. Each side has exactly the same number of dots.” As she spoke, the dark green pattern on the leaf continued to grow.

The striking dots had already formed a square, but clearly that wasn’t all—new dots were appearing in the blank space beside the square, lining up in rows, forming more patterns!

Margarita and her team stared wide-eyed, guessing what the final image might be. Then, suddenly, everything stopped.

The subsequent dots formed only a short line before abruptly ending.

“What about the rest?” Margarita couldn’t help but ask, looking up. “Why stop?”

“The signal cut off,” Beltira shrugged. “That’s all I recorded. You have to understand, using these tremors to record images is incredibly inefficient. We’d need a long, uninterrupted signal to fully map it out—but I only received about ten minutes.”

“Damn…” Margarita muttered a not-so-ladylike curse, then fell into thought. “So the essence of these signals…”

“Is probably a picture. What we see is likely just a fragment. How big it is, what it means, who sent it—completely unknown,” Beltira said, spreading her hands with a human touch and shaking her head. “I even suspect it might be a blueprint, but that’s just speculation—there’s too little to go on.”

“In any case, we can be sure it’s not a ‘natural phenomenon,’” Margarita took a deep breath. “Whoever’s behind this has been continuously sending us an image—maybe not intentionally to us, but some kind of indiscriminate broadcast that our crystal array happened to catch. Either way, this must be reported to the capital immediately.”

“Of course,” Beltira nodded. “This is very unusual. And considering the recent network howling incident… there’s more and more unsettling things in this world.”

“By the way,” Margarita suddenly glanced at Beltira with curiosity, “when did you discover these patterns?”

“Just a few hours ago,” Beltira tugged at the corner of her mouth, a faint smile flickering. “Luck played a big part—I came up with an approach that doesn’t follow normal code-breaking rules. I just got lucky.”

“That’s still an impressive achievement,” Margarita sincerely praised. Then she couldn’t help but turn her gaze to the sac hanging in the center of the ellipsoid chamber. “Actually, I’ve been meaning to ask—what exactly is that thing?”

There were many strange objects in this chamber, but most at least resembled vines, flowers, or leaves. Only the sac suspended in the center was so bizarre and mysterious it was impossible to ignore. Margarita had been drawn to it since they entered but hadn’t dared ask until now, after the formal discussion was over.

What exactly was this former High Priestess of the Cult of the End of All Things researching in her “private laboratory”?

Hearing Margarita’s question, Bertilla’s face showed no particular reaction—though, with her plant-like features, it’s not easy to read any expression anyway. Yet her tone carried a hint of pride. “That’s an upgrade and supplement I made for myself. This time, I managed to crack the clues hidden in the signal largely thanks to this thing. If you want, I can open the pod outside, but what’s inside might be a bit of a visual shock for ordinary people… so be prepared.”

Margarita immediately smiled confidently. “Of course—we’re all specially trained. No matter what we encounter, we won’t lose our composure. Go ahead and open it. Satisfy our curiosity.”

Bertilla nodded slightly and gave a gentle wave of her hand. Suddenly, the pod in the center of the “room” began to squirm and rustle. Then, the reddish-brown outer shell split open in neat, petal-like segments, unfolding outward to reveal a transparent, egg-shaped inner shell. Inside was a translucent nutrient fluid—and immersed within it, an enormous, astonishing mass of biological tissue.

It was a brain. A synthetic brain nearly as tall as a person, soaking in nutrient fluid.

Margarita, the specially trained Imperial officer, widened her eyes the instant she saw it. A shiver ran through her, raising the hairs on her arms. “W-what is this!?”

“I made myself a brain—modeled as closely as possible on a human brain. Though the size is a bit of an issue… I didn’t intend to make it this big at first,” Bertilla said with no change in expression, as if it were the most trivial thing in the world.

Margarita felt her mind struggling to keep up with this plant-being before her. When she asked her next question, her head was already spinning. “How did you even come up with the idea to make yourself a brain?”

This time, Bertilla paused thoughtfully, then patiently explained: “After becoming a plant, I noticed my way of thinking gradually shifting toward that of a plant. Lately, I’ve been standing here like a real tree—my consciousness filled only with thoughts of basking in the sun, bearing fruit, and leaves fluttering in the wind. I was worried about this, so I made myself a brain to help stabilize my sense of self as a ‘human.’ As for the boost in logical thinking and associative ability this brain gave me… that was actually an unexpected bonus.”

Margarita’s wide eyes slowly returned to normal. She gave the former Cult Leader of All Things’ plant form a strange look, suddenly realizing that trying to communicate with a plant really was a lot more exhausting than she’d imagined…

(End of chapter)